What I’ve been playing
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
I’ve finally gotten to play a few rounds of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, and have had a pretty good time with it. My strategy mostly revolves around finding a house early on and hiding in a corner somewhere, which might not sound exciting, but it certainly provides a tense experience. One game I was huddled behind a set of stairs as the circle got smaller and smaller, and finally I heard footsteps get closer and closer. Then a door opened. More footsteps. The intruder walked up the stairs right over me, and I debated whether to stand my ground or try to sneak up behind them. Luckily the bombs starting falling all around us and I used the cover of the explosions to scurry up the stairs unnoticed. There he was, staring out the window as I pulled out my pistol and fired a few shots into his back. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to kill him and he was better armed than me. He spun around and pointed his rifle at me as I quickly retreated back down the stairs and stupidly ran back underneath them again. I was backed into a corner, but I didn’t hear any footsteps. I figured he had to be at the top of the stairs looking down, using leverage to his advantage.
I hid there practically holding my breath for a few minutes, but then the circle moved away from us and I knew I’d have to move. I watched the timer tick down figuring maybe I could wait him out and if he left first I could get the jump on him. Finally with 30 seconds left until the blue circle of death would start to creep toward us, he popped off a few smoke grenades, engulfing the house in a dense fog. I decided to try to use the cover to my advantage and quietly sneak outside. I made it out the door! But my victory was short lived, as I was quickly shot in the back and killed.
Needless to say, I’ve been having a blast with Battlegrounds, even though the best I’ve ever finished is 16th place. There’s just something immensely satisfying about knowing you’re well hidden as someone runs right past you allowing you to get the jump on them. Unfortunately, it seems every time I find myself in an advantageous position, someone with more patience has been lurking just behind and takes me out after I spring on an opportunity.
Prey
I hadn’t heard much about Prey leading up to its release. I didn’t even know what type of game it was. I’m not sure whether that’s a symptom of a lack of pre-release coverage (I get 90% of my gaming news from Giant Bomb) or whether I just passively ignored any coverage out of lack of interest. I had never played the original Prey, nor have I played System Shock, which I think further contributed to my misunderstanding of the game. I ended up watching a Twitch stream on Thursday night and the game looked incredibly pleasing visually. I enjoyed watching the player explore the space station, and I figured it would be a shooter with a cool environment. I didn’t stick around long enough to see any encounters before I bought it on Steam.
Once I finally launched the game I was quite excited. It looked great, though I had to tone the settings down to a sort of medium-high mix on my GTX 1060 and AMD FX8320 (oc’ed to 4.0Ghz) to get a better framerate. Once I encountered my first mimic it scared the crap out of me. I had no clue what I was getting into, which probably worked to the games advantage, because from that point on I was absolutely on edge. I’m not huge into horror games, and I especially dislike jump scares, so after about an hour or so I had to turn the game off.
I’d like to play more, but I’m not sure how much I can actually handle.
DOTA 2
For some reason after watching Brad Shoemaker purchase the International 2017 Battle Pass on a Giant Bomb stream (Unprofessional Fridays) I decided to launch the game and do the same for myself. I haven’t played DOTA since last year’s International, and even then I found the game incredibly difficult to get the hang of, and I’ve played poorly in every match I’ve played. Last weekend I played a few matches and my teams actually won 2 out of the 3 matches I played. Unfortunately, I didn’t contribute much at all (maybe other than being a distraction), as I didn’t land a single kill all weekend. Still, I find myself wanting to play more. I’ll probably try to play a few bot matches until I can start landing kills before I jump into matchmaking again, however.
Modern Warfare Remastered
After playing some Black Ops II via backwards compatibility I found myself wanting more traditional Call of Duty, so I ordered the Infinite Warfare Legacy Edition on Amazon for $55. It was a nostalgic trip to get back into Modern Warfare, even though I’ve gotten absolutely destroyed in every match that I’ve played. I can’t seem to get aiming down with the analog stick, and I half wish I had bought it for PC instead (though I’m sure I’d still get destroyed).
Games I still need to play
I’d like to finish up Telltale’s Batman, and after seeing Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 I picked up that Telltale game as well. I’m not sure if I’m liking it so far, however. I’ve played the first two chapters, and haven’t really enjoyed the gameplay.
I need to work on Grim Fandango and Full Throttle on PS4, and then there’s my ever growing backlog that includes: Horizon Zero Dawn, Breath of the Wild (Wii U), Tales of Berseria, Uncharted 4, Yakuza 0 and Until Dawn among many more.
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